Veterans’ stories
They defeated the Nazis, but now the veterans of D-Day are battling time. The stories of survivors from Georgia will appear Sunday in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
It was a somber Friday morning at the U.S. cemetery at Omaha Beach in Normandy, not only because of those lost on the bloody shores 70 years ago, but for the passing of an era.
Many of the 400-plus D-Day veterans sat behind President Barack Obama as he spoke — including two 91-year-olds from Georgia — but their numbers and firsthand recollections dwindle by the day. And in today’s fast-twitch culture, Obama mused, the world would have been calling the audacious Operation Overlord “a debacle,” given the horrific scene at Omaha and early setbacks when the beach was lost before it was won.
But wave after wave of Allied forces kept crossing the English Channel.
“A race to judgment would not have taken into account the courage of free men,” Obama told 14,500 service members, veterans, dignitaries and history buffs. He and French President Francois Hollande gave the only speeches in a ceremony marked by a 21-gun salute from artillery perched on the cliffs where the Germans had dug in seven decades ago.
He looked out on graves of 9,387 Americans, including some 200 Georgians. After the European victory, Obama pointed out, America took only land for bases and to bury her dead.
The stars of the show were the D-Day vets, many in wheelchairs and sporting uniforms with carefully applied medals, ribbons and insignia. People surrounded them asking for pictures and stories, and they were happy to oblige.
“These men waged war so that we might know peace,” said Obama, himself two generations removed from the era. “They sacrificed so that we might be free. They fought in hopes of a day when we’d no longer need to fight. We are grateful to them.”
Of course, America fought again and is still fighting overseas. And the president offered up examples from current service members to match those of what has come to be known as the “Greatest Generation.”
"And this generation — this 9/11 Generation of service members — they, too, felt something," Obama said. "They answered some call; they said 'I will go.' They, too, chose to serve a cause that's greater than self — many even after they knew they'd be sent into harm's way. And for more than a decade, they have endured tour after tour."
A reminder of the tense geopolitical situation 70 years after D-Day came a couple of hours later for Obama. At a luncheon held by Hollande for world leaders, he spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin for 10 to 15 minutes. Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes said Obama urged Putin to recognize the newly elected Ukrainian government.
“If Russia does take this opportunity to recognize and work with the new government in Kiev,” Rhodes said, “President Obama indicated that there could be openings to reduce tensions.”
The group of world leaders then went on to the international D-Day commemoration up the road at Sword Beach, which included the British royal family.
The strife in Ukraine has prompted some to draw World War II parallels. Obama did not tread on such ground in his speech, instead setting the scene and weaving the tales of heroes past. Among the D-Day veterans sitting behind the president were Richard Bailey of Kennesaw and Dave Andrews Jr. of Atlanta, both pilots who flew bombing missions that day.
“It brought back a lot of memories,” Andrews said. But then his thoughts quickly turned to his belief that he is the last surviving pilot in his squadron.
Other Georgians held prominent posts, too.
The two presidents were welcomed from their helicopters by former Democratic U.S. Sen. Max Cleland of Georgia, now the secretary of the American Battle Monuments Commission, which oversees U.S. cemeteries and markers abroad.
U.S. Rep. Hank Johnson, a Democrat who — like Cleland — calls Lithonia home, joined the congressional delegation. Johnson said he jumped at the chance to take the trip and was making his first visit to the cemetery.
“I’m in awe of what they were able to accomplish here, despite all odds,” Johnson said. “It was a hell of a fight to take this beach.”
While Friday morning’s remembrance was solemn, the countryside has been alive with celebration and a friendly welcome to Americans. The Stars and Stripes mingle with French flags in towns across the region. World War II-era jeeps clog the roadways, with men and women in period costume mingling about.
“They were our liberators,” Hollande said at Friday’s ceremony. “France will never forget what it owes the United States of America.”
But it was about more than France. Obama wove in the campaigns of World War II with the global spread of representative government, arguing that America’s continued hand in those developments started with the blood shed on these shores.
“This was democracy’s beachhead,” Obama said. “And our victory in that war decided not just a century, but shaped the security and well-being of all posterity.”
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